In the past, I’ve never seen so much news coverage of the lobbying to host the Olympic games. Is there some reason why this has been covered so much?
I am not sure where you are from, but here in the UK all the news has simply been because that for the first time the UK was a serious contender (an actually won). Normally we couldn’t care less
Not really, just because of the players involved: NYC, Paris and London - three of the most important cities in the world. Madrid and Moscow were also candidates.
I think that the 9/11 attacks made the NYC bid more prominent than it normally would have been, made it look like awarding NYC the 2012 games would seem like an act of defiance against terrorists. And then, with the French being so vociferously opposed to attacking Iraq, the fact that Paris is also in the running gave the whole process moe political overtones than usual.
Don’t forget that London has hosted the games in 1908 and 1948 , so it is wrong to say that the UK has never been a serious contender before.
Ah, but that wasn’t a comparable situation. They stepped in at those times, because at the time they were the only ones who really could and would (at least that’s what I read somewhere on the bbc site). This is the first time they won a regular nomination.
In 1908 Rome won the bid to host the OLympic games. but had to withdraw for financial reasons so the games were moved to London. London won the bid for the 1944 games but World War II caused the cancellation. In 1948 London got the nod due to the short notice.
I disagree with the OP’s view - I remember just as much fuss being made four years ago.
There is always a fare bit of fuss, and the fuss for the 2000 games was extreme due to it being the millenium games. Just being every four years we tend to forget.
I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but I certainly remember there being a lot of coverage in Canada of Vancouver’s bid for the 2010 Olympics, and Toronto’s bid for the 2008 Olympics. On the other hand, I don’t remember any coverage of the bids for the 2006 Olympics.
So I was sort of correct if, as you say, there was a bidding process for the 1908 and the 1944 games.
I think for many in NYC, the Olympic bid seemed like an attempt to reassert ourselves on the world stage, psychologically at least. Unfortunately, I think there are more practical concerns that need to be dealt with. Besides which, the Olympics have been held in the US four times in the last twenty five years (Lake Placid 1980, Los Angeles 1984, Atlanta 1996, Salt Lake City 2002). Let somebody else have a turn.
Well, two, now, innit?
I think that one reason that there appears to be more of a fuss this far in advance is the ever increasing financial implications of such an event. With TV and internet rights, sponsorship factors, and even more enormous amounts of money at stake than ever before, there figures to be more bang to such an event.
No one except the Canadians cares about the winter olympics 